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Quote:More and more companies are jumping into the Web analytics arena. In fact, Jupiter Research estimates the size of the Web analytics market will reach US$565 million in 2006. Choosing a Web analytics firm, however, is not merely a matter of brand name or even price. 

Choosing a Web analytics firm, however, is not merely a matter of brand name or even price. There are three distinct options in the analytics world: client-side, server-side and hosted solutions. Before you launch out into the analytics world, you need to understand the pros and cons of each option for your specific business needs.

...Client-side analytics tools are software installed on the user's computer. Server-side tools are installed on the Web site's  server. Hosted solutions are, as their name suggests, hosted by a service provider on its server...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/ZODvvSiG...sted.xhtml

A followup article on choosing the right web analytics package for your business:

Quote:You know that half the money you are spending on Internet advertising is wasted -- you just aren't sure which half. You've read about Web analytics and have played with the free tools that come from your Web hosting solution, but you realize you need more. The only problem is, there are more than 60 vendors on the market. Which one do you select? The answer is, it depends.

The more expensive solutions may not offer value, especially if yours is a small to mid-sized business. Omniture and HitBox Pro provide much more information and more sophisticated methods of data analysis that may be too much for some SMBs. Enterprise-level products like these are critical in developing custom reports, however...

"Inexpensive or free solutions like Google and VisiStats provide a great bang for the buck. They provide a basic level of Web analytics that is useful for low traffic sites and small businesses , but when a site grows to become a high volume site those solutions are not effective,"...

full article: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/PPPE...-You.xhtml